Kabul, Dec 8 (IANS): Due to global border closures and restrictions imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Afghan aviation sector suffered an estimated $100 million loss, according to the country's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Multiple plans will be implemented to improve the aviation sector, including infrastructural plans at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, TOLO News quoted CAA head Mohammad Qasim Wafaeezada as saying on Monday.

He clarified that there has been a $40 million reduction in the income of Kam Air and Ariana Afghan Airlines and a $60 million reduction in the income of the CAA, compared to last year.

"Airline companies will agree with me that this support, and the support policy of the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority, has been successful, and despite the financial damage by the pandemic, particularly Kam Air and Ariana Airlines, none of them are on the verge of bankruptcy," he said.

But the head of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, Sayed Omar Saboor, stressed the need for construction of a new airport in Kabul.

"The Hamid Karzai International Airport is among residential houses and among the city. You can see that we are not safe from land grabbers. The surroundings of the airport should not have been filled with houses," Saboor said.

He suggested that the new airport should be built in Logar province southwest of Kabul and that the project should be completed by 2030.